They Chose My Sister, Then Learned She Was Dying novel · Chapter 16 of 24
Chapter 16: Sunday, Out Loud
Cal wheeled my sister into the church at ten past eleven with a four-hour pass from her doctor and a bag of her medicine on his lap.
Every head in the pews turned.
Some of them had been at the Elks hall.
Some had only heard, and they turned the fastest.
Cal parked her at the end of the front row, across the aisle from where my parents sat, and sat down beside her.
I took the seat on her other side.
My father was in his deacon's place, in the good suit, with the offering plates stacked at his elbow.
He did not look at us.
The pastor stood at the pulpit and gave a short, careful sermon about trials, and I watched my father listen with his jaw set.
"We have had a difficult week," the pastor said at the end. "Brother Hallam has asked to speak to the congregation."
My father stood up.
He walked to the front, and he was gray all the way to his collar.
He gripped the pulpit with both hands.
"This family has been tested," he said.
His voice was the big Sunday one, full of rafters.
"There was a mistake at a laboratory. Some of you were hurt by it. The Lord moves in ways we cannot see, and we ask you to forgive us for the confusion and to keep us in your..."
"Dad."
Maisie didn't raise her voice.
She didn't need to.
The church was dead quiet, and her thin voice went down the aisle like a thrown stone.
"That's not what you said you'd say."
My father stopped.
"Maisie, honey, you shouldn't be out of bed."
"You said you'd answer a question."
"Not like this."
"In front of the people who prayed over her," Maisie said. "You said it was where you'd say it."
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